Welcome to the new and improved story of Smoke, now called Howl thanks to inspiration from Florence + The Machine. I tried hard to help this fic by giving it less of a mary-sue and more of a plot. I also didn't like how Smoke was being planned and written out so this is a completely different story that's NOT going to go along with the plotline of the game, and it's going to be set in more modern times. I'm keeping this mostly consistent with the canon of the game, but I will have snippets of the actual Fables comic in here at times.
Disclaimer: I do not own Wolf Among Us. Please let me know what you think. All criticism is welcome criticism even if it's harsh, I just want to improve!
Jane Archer had to admit she'd been careless. A meticulous thief for 300 years, yet this is the fourth time Bigby has caught her in the act of swiping a few things in the past two months. Also known as the fourth time she's had to deal with his condescending face, and the fourth time she's had to spend a couple nights in the holding cell.
Things were so much more different in the Fable Community up in Northern Ireland. In the UK, she could steal and give back what was taken, fixing the corruption that formed and becoming a model for those who lived there, making it a place of equal opportunity and greed-free. Here, she was bloody arrested.
The fourth arrest started late (or was it early?) in the morning, around 3:00, when she snuck out from whatever secluded underpass or alley she lived in and made her move towards a locked clothing store. She grabbed her lucky lockpicks out of her back pocket and went to work on the locked 'employee's only' door behind the shop. She struggled a bit, twisting the needle this way and that until a satisfying click signaled the door unlocked. She mentally high-fived herself for being incredibly skilled and quietly slipped open the door, checking behind her to see if anyone was around or noticed her. When she was satisfied with her safety, she slid through the door and slowly cracked it behind her so she could make for any easy escape.
Jane made her rounds through the store, finding any good clothes she could to give to the mundies and fables since the winter season was quickly making its way towards New York. She shoved all the clothes into a worn backpack then started towards the cash register. She didn't realize he was in the store with her until she smelt the scent of cigarettes fills the air. Her heart pounded in her chest and her breathing quickened since she noticed how dark it actually was in the store. Her mind panicked, but she wouldn't let him get the best of her this time. She set the backpack down and quietly crawled her way towards the back door, hoping to keep her noise to a minimum, and when the light of the outside seeped through and lit up, she made a dash for it. She slammed the door open with her shoulder and ran towards a wall pipe, gripping on it and hauling herself up and climbing it to the roof. She started to run across the gravel of the roof but was tackled down by the wolfman himself.
"No!" She desperately kicked up and around, trying to find purchase so she could get away, but was easily pinned down by the scruffy sheriff.
"Just calm down, will ya? Make this easy on both of us and give up," Bigby growled, pinning down her back with his arms while trying to find his handcuffs. She grunted as he gripped her arms together and locked the handcuffs around her wrists. "So what'd you try to steal this time?" He pulled her up and set her straight while still holding onto an arm.
"Clothes." She spat.
He eyed her up and down. "Yeah, you do need some new clothes." He picked her up and slung her over his shoulder while he ambled leisurely towards the edge of the roof.
"Not for me you idiot! For the people who need them! And you know if you jump down you're going to hit me right in my stomach, right?"
"I'll be gentle," He said, holding her tight as he jumped off and landed on the concrete with a grunt. His shoulder knocked right into her and all the air knocked out of her.
"You... Said You'd... Be careful... You asshole!" She wheezed out, coughing and trying to get air back in her lungs while he stood her up on the ground and started guiding her towards the fable jailhouse.
"How careful can you be when you're jumping off a roof."
She shot him a sharp glare over her shoulder.
"Don't give me that look Jane. It's your fault for choosing this is your 'profession' then getting caught." Bigby was sitting behind the warden's desk with his feet propped up, a cigarette in his mouth, and book in his hand. He had looked up right when Jane was rounding off another group of dirty glares in his direction.
"I'm just trying to help people live their lives. It's not like any of you up in the business office do anything." Jane muttered angrily under her breath, her thick Irish accent coming out to the point of being gibberish if Bigby wasn't already used to it. She was laying down on the metal bed staring up at her hand that had dirt clogged up under her fingernails- while a shoeless foot dangled off the side of the bed. "You most of all, I hear you're just a big jerk. Nice to see nothing's changed from the homelands."
Bigby growled lowly in anger but took a long drag to calm himself. "Good to see you haven't changed either, holding long term grudges was your specialty if I remember correctly." He retorted, smirking lightly at the scowl on her face.
"Yeah, and eating grandmas' and little girls' was yours; if I remember correctly." She snarked back with a greeting from her middle finger.
Bigby rolled his eyes, took another drag then put out the smoking stick, and went back to reading his book. Obviously conversation with her was going to go nowhere, but he still had a couple topics to talk about.
"...You hungry?" Bigby asked after a few minutes to let the tension simmer.
Jane's stomach instantly growled as if sensing sustenance.
"No." Jane said a beat later.
"Oh, C'mon, all of Fabletown heard that," Bigby argued, opening up one of the drawers on the desk and grabbing out a couple of convenience store snacks he had stored.
"I swear I'm not hungry." She argued. Her stomach growled a second later.
"Jane, I'm being nice, and since everyone and their mother thinks that's impossible, you should take the food and embrace this miracle." He got up with the snacks and slid them through the bars of the cell door. He went back to his seat and picked up his book while silently observing Jane getting up and grabbing the snacks.
"Thanks, or whatever," She muttered with a small tone of curiosity and sincerity. She tore open the wrapping and shoved one of the snacks into her mouth and moaned in satisfaction. "Fuck, I love apple tarts. This is so good. Oh my God, do you have more? I'll do a tradsies, I'll give you back the other snacks for the rest of your apple tarts."
Bigby snorted in amusement and surprise at her attitude. Maybe she was just hangry and that was why she was always so bitter. "Uh, yeah, sure, you can have them." He went back into the drawer and rifled through until he found all the apple snacks and carried them back to the holding cell.
"Yes! This is the best arrest ever!"
"I would say not to make a habit out of getting arrested, but it's already too late," He said walking back to his desk with his reclaimed non-apple snacks. He was a bit surprised at the ferocity to which she devoured the snacks, but wasn't too taken aback by it. She picking her up he had noticed how light she was and came to the conclusion that she must not eat much.
"Alright, I'm going to bed, wake me up when I can leave. Night, Wolf." She laid down on the metal cot once she was finished with the snacks and turned her back to him as she closed her eyes. Despite how uncomfortable it was to sleep, she still managed to let her eyes naturally droop and dreams to put her out.
"G'night." He replied quietly, going back to reading his book.
The next day, Bigby unlocked her cell around 10 A.M. throwing what little belongings she had next to her dangling feet while she stretched out all the kinks in her back with a yawn.
"To be honest, sleeping here is way better than sleeping on concrete, my back hurts less..." She said, popping her neck into place and rubbing at her eyes.
"You wouldn't have to sleep on concrete if you'd just find a job and maybe make some friends, but I'm assuming the latter is kind of hard for you." He held open the door for her and looked it behind her when she walked out.
"Sheriff, it's not good for you to talk so lowly about yourself like that. I'm sure once you stop terrorizing everyone, maybe you'll make a friend."
"Oh, hardy har. Always with quick wit with you." He guided her outside where she did a two finger salute.
"Of course, without it, how would an exotic creature like myself survive in the harsh city of New York."
"Yeah, you're a creature, that's for sure," He mumbled quietly under his breath. "Anyway, I'd tell you to stay out of trouble and to not steal anything, but you haven't succeeded in a single heist yet, so once again I'll let you off with a warning since you're not an immediate threat. Go find a job, maybe try and get some help from the business office to find a place so you don't have to sleep outside anymore."
She rolled her eyes, flicked him off and made her way towards God knows where. He watched her mess of blonde curls bounce around the corner of a street until she fully disappeared then walked back into the jailhouse. He opened the drawer above the snacks and quickly thumbed through files until he found Jane's. It was a bland and empty manilla folder with only one picture of her and a brief description. The woman was an anomaly back in the homelands, and the fact that she was an anomaly hadn't changed when she suddenly showed up one night trying to break into a jewelry store, the smell of another land around her.
The sudden appearance of her stirred up Fabletown quite a bit. People had taken to calling her Robin Hood because of her ride or die attitude towards helping the needy in an unconventional manner and the fact that she had a resemblance to Robin Loxley, the original but deceased Robin Hood. Snow desperately wanted to help her, but even with the help of the magic mirror, she could never seem to find her until she was out and about, trying to break into some store. Other than that, it seemed like she just vanishes, but he knew that wasn't true because he could smell her when every she was nearby. That's one of the reason's he can find her when she was up to her thievery.
Bigby shut the manilla folder and slid it back into its original spot, only one question on his mind:
Just who was Jane Archer?